Prior art snare drum brushes have traditionally been made of a plurality of fine wire filaments which may be extended from or retracted into a hollow elongated handle member. Such a construction presented numerous drawbacks, the primary one being the fragile wire filaments per se. A drummer had to be extremely careful with these prior art filaments, both in the handling of them while playing, and also in the storage of brushes, since the fine metal wires were very susceptible to bending. Once the filaments became bent, twisted, or broken, they were apt to become jammed within the tubular handle member or would stick out at unusual angles from the main body of filaments where they were susceptible to being snagged on objects, such as the edge of the drum, thereby hindering the drummer in their proper use. Once a wire filament kinks, it is impossible to straighted it out to its former condition, and it is necessary to cut it off, thereby leaving a sharp, stiff, piercing strand.
Another drawback in the use of fine wire filaments for drumbrushes resides in the fact that the wire filaments in use tend to wear a sharp end or point. This sharp point finds the minute holes in natural skin drum heads, thereby causing a break in the drum skin, or at least making the holes larger.
Applicant's prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,420,134, granted Jan. 7, 1969, discloses a snare drum brush having filaments constructed of plastic material having a relatively large diameter as compared to the diameter of conventional metal wire filaments. By constructing the filaments of relatively large diameter plastics material, the filaments do not have any tendency to kink or bend, and do not tend to catch in the holes in a natural skin drum head. While the use of plastic filaments achieves a sharper sound on the drum and a more brilliant sound on the cymbal than the conventional brush constructed from fine wire filaments, many drummers resisted the use of the unconventional plastic filaments and still preferred to use the brushes having fine metal wire filaments in spite of the drawbacks associated therewith.